Meyers: Dialogue has power to prevent bike-related fatalities

Feb. 19, 2014

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There are few places on the Coloradoan’s website where will you find more heated arguments than in the comment sections of cycling-related stories.

Already this year we’ve seen one person on a bike killed in a hit-and-run crash near Windsor and two other people hospitalized in separate vehicle-bike collisions. With these stories come emotional responses from the community.

Passionate cyclists defend their sport — or their sole mode of transportation — while drivers push the blame on bikes (and figuratively off the road). These conversations happen after every story, and yet I can’t stop reading.

Here’s a general sampling of the discourse that develops, no matter the context of the cycling-related story:

Angry person one (noncyclist): “Bikes don’t belong on the road. They are a pain in the (butt).”

Angry person two (noncyclist): “Agree! And they don’t pay registration or taxes!”

Angry person four (noncyclist): “Bikers are always in my way when they merge into my lane. They can’t do that!”

Informed person (cyclist): “Actually, according to (insert Colorado law here), cyclists have the right to ...”

Angry person five (cyclist): “Drivers in Fort Collins are the worst! Are they blind?”

And, you get the point.

What I never see in these conversations is a dialogue, a sense of understanding, or a hint of compassion. Only name-calling, ignorant “fact” spewing and way too many generalizations and assumptions. For a Platinum Bicycle-Friendly city, Fort Collins isn’t very friendly on the Internet.

As a freshman at Colorado State University, I was in a seminar with 18 other students. We discussed, among other topics, race, gender and socioeconomic issues. We read a book, “From Debate to Dialogue,” which highlighted America’s need to debate every topic — think ESPN’s “Embrace Debate” — and the need to shift instead to a dialogue culture.

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This alternative being that instead of arguing to win or be right, we use a process to seek to understand others from their frame of reference. We also learned ways to speak without polarizing issues or invalidating others.

This certainly didn’t mean I always agreed with my classmates, but we could disagree without being nasty to one another. Sometimes, we even furthered the conversation and settled on resolutions to solve our differences.

What a concept. Stick a bunch of 18-year-old freshmen in a room, and we could hammer out our issues.

Perhaps it’s time for “cyclists” and “motorists” to drop the labels, sit in a room together as citizens and learn how to coexist on Colorado’s roads. Because if there’s one given, people are still going to ride their bikes to work. People still need to drive cars. Sure, there will always be the obnoxious knucklehead who hates cyclists or the outspoken person who rebels against cars.

But what we can stop is people on bikes getting killed by cars. That’s a story I’m tired of reading.

Xplore reporter Stephen Meyers covers the outdoors and recreation for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter @stemeyer or Facebook.com/meyersreports.